Lack of skilled workers
threatens recovery: Manpower

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NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Workers with specialized skills like electricians, carpenters and
welders are in critically short supply in many large economies, a
shortfall that marks another obstacle to the global economic recovery, a
research paper by Manpower Inc (NYSE:MAN - News) concludes.

The global staffing and employment
services company says employers, governments and trade groups need to
collaborate on strategic migration policies that can alleviate such
worker shortages. Skilled work is usually specific to a given location:
the work cannot move, so the workers have to.

The shortage of
skilled workers is the No. 1 or No. 2 hiring challenge in six of the 10
biggest economies, Manpower found in a recent survey of 35,000
employers. Skilled trades were the top area of shortage in 10 of 17
European countries, according to the survey.

While the short-term
way to address to shortages is to embrace migration, the long-term
solution is to change attitudes toward skilled trades, Manpower argues.

Since
the 1970s, parents have been told that a university degree -- and the
entry it affords into the so-called knowledge economy -- was the only
track to a financially secure profession. But all of the skilled trades
offer a career path with an almost assured income, Joerres said, and
make it possible to open one's own business.

In the United States,
recession and persistent high unemployment may lead parents and young
people entering the workforce to reconsider their options.

WELDERS
NEEDED

The skilled trades category also includes jobs like
bricklayers, cabinet makers, plumbers and butchers, jobs that typically
require a specialist's certification.

Older, experienced workers
are retiring and their younger replacements often do not have the right
training because their schools are out of touch with modern business
needs. Also contributing to the shortage is social stigma attached to
such work, Manpower argues in its paper published on Wednesday.

A
poll of 15-year-olds by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development found only one in 10 American teenagers see themselves in a
blue-collar job at age 30. The proportion was even lower in Japan.

Education
could address that stigma. Students should be reminded that blue-collar
work can be lucrative: skilled plumbers can make upwards of $75,000 a
year, Manpower argues.

Overall, Manpower's fifth annual talent
shortage survey found 31 percent of employers worldwide are having
difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable workers
available in their markets, up one percentage point over last year.

Although the proportion of employers seeing
shortages is still below pre-recession levels, shortages in some
countries are more critical than the global average.

Majorities of
those surveyed in Poland, Singapore, Argentina and Brazil reported
shortages. In Japan, 76 percent had trouble finding the right workers,
the highest reading among the 36 countries and territories.

Examples
of successful, targeted migration include an Ohio shipbuilder that
brought in experienced workers from Mexico and Croatia, and a French
metal-parts maker that hired Manpower to find welders in Poland.

Obstacles
to such migration include differing standards for certification in
skilled trades, as well as political barriers to immigration, which
remains an "emotive" subject in many countries, Manpower's CEO said.
Japanese employers, for example, have difficulty attracting skilled
workers.

Sweden, on the other hand, is innovative and aggressive
about strategic migration, for example by removing obstacles to workers
being recertified in their specialty, Joerres said.